The city of Boulder is considering what its energy future will look like. The goal it to acquire "clean, local and reliable" energy in the future, and one voter-approved option is to start a municipal utility. For more information on the history of this decision, click here.

Secretary of State's Office accepts Boulder County election results

By John FryarLongmont Times-Call

Posted:
01/02/2013 06:15:35 PM MST

Updated:
01/02/2013 06:16:26 PM MST

LONGMONT -- The Colorado Secretary of State's Office has formally decided to accept the accuracy of Boulder County's 2012 election vote counts, despite the post-election refusal by a majority of Boulder County Canvass Board members to certify those results.

Canvass board members learned of the decision in a Monday afternoon email. On Wednesday morning, Secretary of State Scott Gessler defended his office's action during an appearance at a Boulder County Republican Breakfast meeting here.

Gessler, a Republican, said he and his staff followed a legal standard he said requires him to accept this county's election tallies as long as the issues raised by canvass board members wouldn't change the outcomes of the contests and questions on Boulder County's 2012 general election ballots.

Gessler

But Republican Russ Boehm, one of the four canvass board members who'd voted in late November against certifying the results, objected during Wednesday's breakfast meeting that he hadn't seen anything in state law or regulations that specifies that the Secretary of State's Office must accept a county's totals if such a state action wouldn't change the election's outcome.

The two Republicans and two American Constitution Party representatives on the canvass board had cited what they said they believed were irregularities in the ways Boulder County processed its ballots, verified mail-ballot signatures, and counted and totaled the votes cast.

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The two Boulder County Democratic Party representatives on the panel -- along with County Clerk and Recorder Hillary Hall, who's also a Democrat -- dissented from the board majority's 4-3 decision against certifying the results.

Gessler said that "I understand some of those frustrations" the canvass board majority had expressed. He said, however, that his office ultimately had to accept the non-certified Boulder County vote totals because "the problems identified by the canvass board did not rise to the level where they would affect the outcome of the election."

That "may have been a bit different" if the races on Boulder County voters' ballots "had been a lot closer," he said.

Hall was vacationing and unavailable for comment on Wednesday. But county elections coordinator Molly Tayer said in a telephone interview that the secretary of state's announcement this week confirmed what county officials had told canvass board members in November -- that a board majority's refusal to certify the election wouldn't affect the vote tallies or outcomes.

"We just had to wait this out," Tayer said of the official word from the Secretary of State's Office to that effect.

Boehm said after Wednesday's breakfast meeting, however, that the goal and standard the canvass board majority had used in critiquing Boulder County election results boiled down to this: Whoever loses an election contest should be able to walk away knowing that he or she didn't lose because of any improprieties in processing ballots and tallying the votes cast.

Republican canvass board member Daniel Martin, who also attended the breakfast meeting, said afterward that while the canvass board can't change the outcome of the election, it should be able to change the ballot handling and tallying procedures the majority had questioned.

Deputy secretary of state Suzanne Staiert wrote Boulder County Canvass Board members on Monday that the Colorado Department of State's acceptance of Boulder County's election results "is limited to the vote totals for the purpose of the preparation of the secretary of state's statewide abstract" of election results, and that "the acceptance is not a certification of the Boulder County abstract."

Staiert said in her email that a number of the issues raised by the canvass board majority fell outside the scope of the office's investigation of matters that state law lists as being a canvass board's duties -- duties, Gessler noted Wednesday, that include reconciling the ballots cast to confirm that the number of ballots counted in the election don't exceed the number of ballots cast.

Staiert wrote, however, that the Department of State will continue to work with Boulder County to ensure future compliance with election rules the canvass board majority contended had been violated.

Staiert said the office had been "particularly interested" in a report that six Bolder County precincts showed more ballots counted than cast. But she said those discrepancies appeared to have stemmed from situations like several in which polling-place judges gave voters ballots intended for a neighboring precinct -- discrepancies she said Boulder County "took reasonable steps to correct" before announcing its own final precinct-by-precinct tallies.

The canvass board majority had also questioned Boulder County's use of a Bell and Howell Equipment ballot sorting and signature-verification machine. Staier said a complaint that the machine hadn't been properly certified by the Secretary of State's Office is the subject of a separate complaint the office already is investigating. Boulder election-issues activist Al Kolwicz filed that complaint.

Martin called Staier's letter "a whitewash." Martin said the Secretary of State's Office's decision to accept the Boulder County election division's vote counts "a slap in the face" and "an outrage" after a majority of canvass board members put in what he said had been thousands of collective hours preparing for and conducting the canvass.

Gessler said Boulder County Canvass Board members had "properly identified" some procedures that could be improved -- situations he indicated his staff will discuss with Boulder County Clerk Hall and her staff.

Gessler said that his office will be analyzing any such election-procedures issues raised anywhere in the state and will try to find ways to fix possible problems before they recur in future elections.

Boulder County's Tayer said that the clerk's and secretary of state's staff are "in complete agreement" about examining any reported problems with the 2012 election and seeing whether that offers and lessons for improving future elections.

Ballot language:
In November, Boulder voters narrowly approved two ballot issues related to starting a municipal utility: 2B and 2C. You can read the full text of the ballot language on the city's website.

Issue 2B asked voters to increase the existing utility occupation tax by up to $1.9 million a year. The money from the tax, which will be collected from customers by Xcel Energy, will be used by the city to cover the costs of moving forward with forming a municipal utility, such as more studies and legal fees.

Issue 2C asked voters for permission to actually form a municipal utility. The language allows the city to sell the necessary bonds to take over the current system from Xcel, but it states that the city may only move forward with forming a municipal utility if it can start the utility with rates that are the same or cheaper than Xcel's.

Helpful Links:City of Boulder: This is where the city is aggregating all of its documents, meeting information and updates on Boulder s energy future: bouldercolorado.gov/energyfuture

RenewablesYes: This website is run by the group of volunteers that lobbied local voters to pass a utility occupation tax in November to replace the expiring franchise fee from Xcel Energy. Now, the group is advocating for the city to secure a cleaner, more local energy supply. renewablesyes.org

Xcel Energy: Xcel is the largest utility in Colorado, and it currently provides electricity to Boulder. The city s 20-year franchise agreement with Xcel expired at the end of 2010. xcelenergy.com

Boulder Smart Energy Coalition: A citizen group that supports the city's general energy goals but has concerns about the risks involved with starting a municipal utility. bouldersec.com

SmartGridCity: Xcel Energy has installed a smart grid in Boulder. This web site provides more information on that initiative. smartgridcity.xcelenergy.com

Colorado Association of Municipal Utilities: This Colorado Springs-based group represents the state s 29 municipal utilities, which include utilities based in Lyons and Longmont. coloradopublicpower.org